their eyes than we had remarked at the other institutions for female education which we had visited elsewhere. At the urgent request of the principal, or head master of the school, Mr. Fuller, I delivered a short address to the pupils, congratulating them on the privileges they enjoyed, and urging them by every consideration of regard for their own happiness and the general improvement of mankind, of which it might be hoped some of them were destined to become the future instruments, to avail themselves of these privileges while they were in their possession, and before the period of youth should have passed away, never again to be redeemed.

In our visit to the bleaching establishment, I was accompanied by one of the principal proprietors, and shown, unreservedly, every part. The building in which the works are carried on is of great extent, standing on the edge of the open piece of water called the Cove, which lies opposite to the upper or north end of Providence. The capital invested in it is about 250,000 dollars, and the number of men employed exceeds 200. Unbleached cotton cloths from all parts of the state are sent here to be bleached. The process commences with putting the cloths into large vats filled with boiling water, and the proper admixture of alkali to produce the whiteness required. The cloths are afterward washed and rinsed in several successive waters till made perfectly pure and bright; they are then dried on racks exposed to currents of air, and are then mangled or calendered on hot metallic rollers, under great pressure. The next process is to submit them to an operation called "beetling," under which, by the stamping of perpendicular pillars on the surface of the cloth, it is made to appear like Irish linen. The piece is then folded into its proper width, and the whole placed in a hydrostatic press; after which it is done up with the greatest neatness and elegance for the packages in which the finished work is returned to the original manufacturer.

The reputation in which the domestic manufactures of America are held all along the coasts of South America and in the islands of the Pacific, for their great strength and durability, as compared with English goods of the same class, is just like the estimation in which Indian muslins, calicoes, and chintses were held in England about twenty years ago, as compared with Glasgow and Manchester goods; and both were well founded, because greater labour and care were bestowed on their fabrication, and they were consequently stronger and more lasting. The knowledge of this fact has induced some British manufacturers to have their calicoes and printed cottons done up with all the external appearance of American goods, and sold as such in the ports of South America and the islands of the Pacific.

It is now about ten years since this bleachery was established, and previous to its erection the expense of bleaching cottons used to be 12 cents per lb., which, by the improved processes used, is now

1

reduced to one and a half cent; and the profit is greater upon the smaller rate than it used to be on the larger. The power of the steam-engine by which the works are carried on is 270 horses; the wages of the men employed range from one to two dollars per day, and the boys about half that sum. Their whole number exceeds 300; but no females are employed in the establishment. The appearance of order, cleanliness, and comfort which reigned throughout the whole was very striking, and greater, I think, than would be found in any similar establishment in England.

We next visited the steam cotton-mills recently erected by a company of capitalists here, and now in full and profitable operation. I had seen most of the large cotton-mills in Manchester, Stockport, Ashton, Oldham, and Preston, as well as in Glasgow, and was familiar with all the processes used in them; and I had expected to find everything in the American mills inferior to the same things in the English ones, merely from the consideration that the latter had enjoyed all the advantages of long establishment and great experience, while the former were of comparatively recent origin. I was surprised, however, to find this in all things equal, and in many superior, to any similar establishment that I had ever visited at home.

The edifice itself is a massive red brick structure, 260 feet in length by 40 in bread:h, of four stories high above the groundfloor, and, exclusive of the attic, the whole height of the building is about 60 feet, with two square towers projecting in front of about 100 feet in height. The just proportions and good taste observed in the architecture, the decorations of the cornice and mouldings at the roof, the lightness and finish of the towers, and the general aspect of the whole, made it look more like some public building for government-offices than a cotton-mill, and caused it to be an ornament to the city instead of a deformity, as most of the large mills are in England.

In the interior we were conducted over every floor from the base to the attic, and saw all the operations, from the hoisting in the bales of raw cotton, to the last finish of the finest threads, as well as the department in which all the machinery used in the mill was made and repaired; everything appeared to us to be in the highest possible order, and the operations to be conducted with the greatest skill and attention. In the several rooms in which the people were at work, more attention seemed to be paid to cleanliness, neatness, and ornament than in English mills; while the persons employed were all better dressed, and evidently in a condition of greater comfort than the same class of factory operatives in England. There are employed in the whole about 300 persons, 200 of whom are men, and 100 women, with very few boys.

The wages of the smiths employed in making and repairing the machinery averaged a dollar and a half per day, though many received two dollars, and some more. The spinners averaged a dollar

per day, and the overseers a dollar and a half. The women, whose ages ranged from 16 to 25, earned half a dollar and three quarters of a dollar per day, and the more skilful a dollar. There were very few married women at work, as it is thought discreditable to the husband that his wife should do anything but look after his domestic arrangements, and attend to her children and her home; so that, unless a husband is improvident, or unfortunate through sickness or any other cause, the wife, though married from the mill, never returns to it. As it is undoubtedly very desirable that all wives should be left free from any other labour, to attend to the affairs of their own homes, and render them comfortable for their husbands and children, I should like to see the same state of things introduced into England, where the sight of father, mother, and children of the same family, all working in the same mill, and all earning scarcely more than a father and a single son will earn here, is a sad and melancholy sight, since it seems to preclude all hope of their intellectual improvement, or their future elevation even a single step beyond their present condition.

The hours of work, exclusive of meals, are ten in the winter and eleven in the summer; and as there are no very young children employed, the hours are uniformly the same for all engaged. Among the young girls of the factory the greater number were extremely pretty, some were really beautiful, and all were as well dressed as young milliners and mantuamakers in England. The greatest respect appeared to be shown to them by their employers, as well as by the overseers and others with whom they had occasion to communicate; and this respect was the better secured by the females all working together in certain rooms, and the males in certain others, so as to ensure a general separation of the two sexes during their labours.

I have reason to believe that the condition and character of this class of operatives in America is greatly superior to that of the same class in Britain. For this there are a number of causes; one is, that the tariff of protecting duties enables the manufacturer to give better wages, and yet realize larger profits than are made in England, out of which he can afford to bestow many ornaments and comforts which a more limited profit would oblige him to curtail. Another cause is, that the men and women employed in the works are better educated while children, have more self-respect, are more temperate, more moral, and, consequently, more prudent. One of the principal manufacturers told me that it was customary to keep an open running account with each individual working in the mill, some being paid by the day, and others by the piece; and that they never drew any wages in advance, but always left a balance to accumulate, so that at the end of each half year, when they came to a settlement, they had frequently 100 dollars each to pay to the males, and sixty and seventy dollars to pay to the fe

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males, as the arrears of wages not drawn by them. This they invariably invested in savings' banks, or stocks of some description, to yield them interest; and the accumulation of two or three years became sufficient to buy them a house; another year's surplus would furnish it, and then they were in a condition to marry. After this the husband would continue in the factory, while the wife would attend to her household affairs at home, and help out her husband's wages by economy in the purchase and making of his apparel, and occasional needlework for others as well as for himself, so that they would continue to advance in respectability and comfort until the workman should become a master on a small scale himself. Many, who are now rich capitalists in Rhode Island, have risen from such a beginning as this.

Among the very few things that I saw in Providence which I could wish not to have seen, was a lottery office; so fatal a snare for the passion of speculation and gambling, and by the temptations of which so many prudent men are rendered reckless and profligate. The object to which the profits of the lottery were to be devoted was a good one, being to increase the funds for supporting the public schools; but even the excellence of the end for which the funds were to be raised could not reconcile me to such objectionable means as that of tempting men to adventure in so uncertain and gambling a transaction as purchasing a ticket in a lottery.

On the other hand, I was much pleased at the fewness of spiritshops, of which I did not see half a dozen during the course of all my walks through the city, and not a single drunken person through all the time of our stay. We saw only one pawnbroker's shop, another excellent symptom, for their abundance is another sure indication of the improvidence and the intemperance of the population by which they are required.

The people of Providence generally appeared to us more robust, ruddy, and healthy than those of Boston or New-York; the dryness of the sandy and gravelly soil, the excellence of the water for drinking, and the sheltered state of the town from bleak easterly winds, may all contribute to this; for the climate is more soft and more mild than it is in New-England generally, and neither the heats of summer nor the colds of winter are felt in such extremes at Providence as they are in the other cities of the North. The temperate habits of the people generally may be inferred from the fact that at the City Hotel, where we resided, there were not more than two persons out of fifty at the dinner-table who took wine, and these were strangers passing through the city and stopping at the hotel for a day; while at the Tremont House in Boston, where about the same number of persons dined at what is called the ladies' table, and where gentlemen (but only those who are accompanied by ladies) sit, as gentlemen who are unaccompanied by ladies dine in a separate room, there were often from twenty to VOL. II.-3 K

thirty decanters of wine seen on the table; and those who did not partake always formed a small minority. Even in the boardinghouse at Boston, to which we removed from the Tremont, the majority of the gentlemen, and several of the ladies, drank wine regularly at dinner, but in the hotel at Providence it was a rare occurrence to see this done by any, and these were generally passengers.

Among the few peculiarities that I noticed was that of knockers being used at the doors as well as bells, whereas at Boston the latter only are used; at least I do not remember to have seen many at the dwelling-houses of that city, while at Providence they are seen as abundantly as in England, being affixed to almost every door.

In the carts and wagons used for heavy burdens, oxen were much more frequently used than horses, and economy was assigned as the reason of this: the number of oxen thus employed was considerable; but in the stage-coaches and other public conveyances for passengers horses alone are employed.

CHAPTER XLVII.

Departure from Providence.-Touch at Bristol.-Land at Fall River.-Journey to NewBedford.-Religious Services at New-Bedford during our Stay.-Rev. Mr. Holmes's Account of the Regions of the West.-Rev. Mr. Bent's farewell Address to his Congregation.-Public Meeting at New-Bedford for a Sailor's Home.-Visit to the Bethel Church.-Clothing Store for Seamen.-Reading-room and Museum of Curiosities. Tablet to an English Seaman raised by Americans.

On the morning of Saturday, the 8th of December, we left Providence by the steamboat called "The King Philip" for New-Bedford, to which I had been invited to deliver my lectures. We met at the wharf a number of our Providence friends, assembled to take a last parting shake of the hand, and to wish us an agreeable trip and safe and speedy return, which we promised to make, if possible, in the ensuing summer; and at ten o'clock we left the City wharf.

Our passage down the Narraganset Bay to the southward was agreeable, though there was nothing of particular interest to engage our attention till we rounded the point which opened the bay and town of Bristol, where we landed some passengers, and took in others for New-Bedford. The appearance of Bristol from the sea is pleasing, and the active bustle on its wharves indicated considerable traffic and communication. Several fine ships of between 300 and 400 tons burden were taking in and discharging cargoes; many warehouses and manufactories were spread along the edge of the town, and several handsome churches-among others, one